A REPORT ON THE 1985-86
NFB BRAILLE READING CONTEST

One of the most sucessful projects of
the NFB Parents of Blind Children and
the National Association to Promote the
Use Of Brail!p> is OUT National Braille*
Reading Contest. The contest began in
1984 and has been growing in popularity
ever since.

Why are we sponsoring this contest and
what do we hope to accomplish by it?
Frankly, if every legally blind child in
this country were given the opportunity to learn Braille, if all teachers of
blind children had a thorough knowledge
of Braille, firmly believed it was an
efficient and competitive method of
reading and were enthusiastic about teaching it, there would be no need for
this contest. Unfortunately, none of
this is true.

This is not to say that all teachers
of the blind and visually impaired are
incompetent Braille instructors or that
all of them believe p-miite is inferior.
The good response we have had to this
contest attests to the fact that there
are many fine, competent, and dedicated
teachers of Braille out there. But they
are a minority. And it is the children
who suffer when they must be evaluated
and trained by people who are ill-prepared
and who have been taught in our
University training programs to believe
that Braille is "slow and tedious."

With conditions being as they are in
regard to Braille, it only made sense to
find some way to get directly to the
kids and encourage them to find out for
themselves how rewarding and fun Braille
could be. We thought there were enough
parents and teachers out there who believed
in Brailir to help make the contest
work. We were right.

Then, we had to draw up the rules and
determine what prizes to give. We decided
since our purpose was simple, that
is, get more blind children to read more Braille; that the contest could be
judged simply on the number of Braille
pages read. We reasoned that if children
just read more, they would become
faster and more proficient readers and
enjoy it more.

To motivate the children to enter the
contest, we decided to offer some great
prizes--cash (up to $50.00) nifty Tshirts,
and certificates for the winners.
Also, every contestant gets a
certificate and a ribbon, so no one
really loses. Then there is the
recognition.

We try our best to see that every
winner and contestant gets some public
recognition for what they have accomplished.
We encourage schools to present
awards and ribbons to the children during
school awards cermonies. Whenever
possible, local representatives of the
NFB have made public presentations and
arranged for media coverage.

This publicity, if well done, does
many good things. It gives recognition
to young blind people who have earned
it; it promotes Braille and portrays the
blind in a competent and positive manner;
and it lets the public know how the
National Federation of the Blind is
improving the lives of blind people.

The 1986-87 contest will be over by
the time this issue is in your hands.
For those who want to get ready for the
1987-88 contest, we suggest you watch Future Reflections for announcements and
the entry form, and/or contact Betty
Nicely, President NAPUB, 3618 Dayton
Ave, Louisville, Kentucky 40207; phone
(502) 897-2632 or 897-6439.

Now, here are the winners of the 198586
contest. We are proud of them. We
congratulate and salute them for their
fine accomplishment. They are truly
"winners" in every sense of the word.

LEGALLY BLIND BOY
WINS THIRD PLACE IN READING

by Cheryl Jackson

(Editor's Note: We regret we cannot
reprint all the fine newspaper articles
which have been written about our NFB
Braille Reading Contest winners. We
simply do not have the space. The following
article however, is typical of
some of the good coverage our winners
have received. The article appeared in
the June 18, 1986 Bay City Times, Bay
City, Michigan.

When Jason Meddaugh's parents go grocery
shopping, they don't take a calculator--they
take 6-year-old Jason.

Although he's a whiz at math, his
favorite subject, it was for reading
that the boy won third place in a national
competition.

Jason, of 901 W. Freedland Road, Saginaw,
is legally blind.

He won the contest, Braille Readers
Are Leaders, despite beginning his efforts
a month after it started.

His mother, Jeanne, said she received
information about the National Braille
Readers Are Leaders contest in early
December, but did not pay much attention
to it until about the end of December.

Contestants were judged by the number
of pages read in Braille from Dec. 1 to
Feb. 28. Jason read 1,206 pages for
entrance in the kindergarten through
first-grade division. For his efforts,
he received a T-shirt and $5 gift
certificate.

"I want to do it every year," said
Jason, who attends Bangor West Elementary
School.

"When he found out he got third place,
he said " Oh, and what does second place
get? So he's got his sights set higher
for next year," said his 35-year-old
mother.

Jason said he also participated in a
similar contest for the March of Dimes
in which he entered the same reading,
including Dr. Seuss, Berenstain Bears
and Sesame Street books. He gets most
of the books he reads from school and
the National Braille Eness Book of the
Month Club.

"He can't go to the library and pick
out four or five books like other kids,"
she said. "Thats probably one of the
most frustrating things."

Because of the school library's
limited selection of Braille books and
the expense of buying new ones, Jeanne
Meddaugh said whenever she finds some
time, she transforms regular print books
to Braille by typing a Braille version
of each leaf and laying it over the
pages.

"He loves a challenge. We started
math with him when he was 3 years old
with great tag flash cards," said
Jason's father, Jim, adding Jason now
does math on a fifth-grade level.

Doctors discovered Jason was legally
blind when he was 6 months old after his
parents noticed that although his eyes
moved constantly, they never focused on
anything.

Jason says he reads for both enjoyment
and to stay ahead in school.

He has just completed kindergarten
where he attended regular classes in the
morning and the schools vision room in
the afternoon.

When not in the classroom, he enjoys
board games and swimming. He also keeps
track of when he should tune in on the
radio to his favorite baseball team with
help of a Braille Detroit Tigers
schedule.

"He's quite independent," Jason's
father, 37, said. "We're used to his
bumps from where he's run into something.
Now when ever we hear them, we
don't even think about them. We say
"are you OK?" and he'll say "Yeah" and
that's that"

Because he enjoys keeping busy, his
mother said whenever she sees an activity
which his handicap will allow Jason
to take part in, she gets him involved.